UK plan to sanction Israel’s illegal West Bank settlements is a historic shift in tone and policy

The UK, which in 1917 issued the Balfour Declaration supporting the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, is now initiating a historic and consequential shift in its foreign policy. In response to the massive expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and credible reports of increased violence by settler groups towards Palestinian residents, the government has announced it will institute a trade ban targeting goods produced in Israeli settlements within the occupied West Bank. The UK will also impose a new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”. UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, told the House of Commons on September 8 that Jewish “settler terrorists” were guilty of ethnic cleansing in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This is a dramatic change in tone from the UK government which – while recognising the state of Palestine and voiced support for a two-state solution – has previously moderated its criticism of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinian people. Writing in The Guardian newspaper, the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, said: “For too long, we have been hesitant to act, fearful of being accused of being anti-Israel. Today we are announcing carefully judged, targeted steps that are not aimed at the Israeli people, but at the unacceptable policies of the current Israeli government.” A key factor behind this decision was the July 2024 advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The court ruled that Israel’s ongoing presence in the West Bank has no legal basis and confirmed that states have a duty not to support or facilitate the continuation of that situation. The UK is one of 12 countries, including France, Ireland and Canada, to sanction Israeli settlements. Ireland and Spain have already introduced some measures, while France has been lobbying unsuccessfully for the EU to act. The economy of the West Bank relies heavily on agriculture and resource extraction. According to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 16.4% of West Bank households depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Primary goods facing the import ban include fresh produce cultivated in the fertile Jordan Valley, which includes Medjool dates, along with grapes, citrus fruits and various greenhouse vegetables. The ban also targets processed foods, wines produced from settlement vineyards and cosmetics manufactured using minerals extracted from the Dead Sea shores. Israel is the UK’s 43rd-largest trading partner, according to UK government figures for March 2025-2026, with trade amounting to about £6 billion (£3.5 billion exports and £2.5 billion imports). Settlement-related goods make up a relatively small share of that total. But the UK will also restrict certain services that support construction, infrastructure, financing or real estate. The move appears to be a direct response to Israel’s advancement of the controversial E1 settlement plan. This project, announced in August 2025 by Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, would effectively cut the West Bank in half. Announcing the scheme, Smotrich said it “buries the idea of a Palestinian state, and continues the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan”. This was widely interpreted as an intention to annex the territory, something he foreshadowed in 2017 in his “Decisive Plan”. How a trade ban might work Passing a law in Westminster is completely different from implementing it at the border. The whole Israeli economy is integrated. So the central dilemma facing UK customs is differentiating between Green Line products (goods produced within Israel’s pre-1967 borders) which are eligible for trade agreement incentives, and goods produced in the occupied West Bank. In order to solve this implementation puzzle, the UK government does not have to start from scratch. It has a recent precedent to draw upon. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UK successfully implemented strict origin-verification mechanisms to ban goods from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories such as Crimea and the Donbas. At the same time, this system guaranteed that legitimate Ukrainian producers were protected and could still access British buyers. The UK is highly likely to adapt this customs blueprint for the West Bank. It will require reliable and granular proof of production origin to distinguish settlement goods from Israeli goods in order to implement the settlement ban without imposing a blanket boycott on Israel. Palestinian producers would also need clear mechanisms to verify the origin of their goods to ensure their local economy is protected rather than inadvertently penalised by enhanced compliance checks. International reaction Israel’s reaction has been immediate and angry, accusing a “hostile” government of “outrageous lies”. It has closed Britain’s consulate in Jerusalem and banned 12 British MPs from entering Israel – including Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott. Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said the UK had “no chance of succeeding” in changing Israeli policies. National security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, called on the government to officially recognise Argentinian sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. He accused Britain of violently stealing the territory, a statement that was quickly reposted by Argentina’s president, Javier Milei. Burnham is reported to have discussed the ban with the US president, Donald Trump, before it was announced. While Trump is reported not to have pushed back, other US officials have denounced the UK’s plan. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, warned of retaliation against the UK, while lawmakers in Florida threatened to trigger state anti-boycott laws to financially penalise any British companies that comply with the new UK restrictions. The announcement has come a fortnight before Burnham’s first trip to the US as prime minister. He will fly to New York for the annual meeting of the UN general assembly and is expected to meet the US president. How this latest development will affect their dialogue remains to be seen.